Facebook buys Oculus VR for $2 billion

Social media powerhouse Facebook has dipped its fingers into the virtual reality gaming market and bagged itself tech company Oculus VR, designers of the impressive Oculus Rift headset.

While gamers will be panicking that the potential of the Oculus Rift will be hampered, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg ensures that the goal is to boost the prospects of the technology and product.

“Oculus’s mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences,” said Zuckerberg in his announcement. “Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won’t be changing and we hope to accelerate. The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there’s a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform. We’re going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this.”

“After games, we’re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences,” he stated. “Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face – just by putting on goggles in your home,” added Zuckerberg.

The Oculus team echoed Zuckerberg’s sentiments and said that they’re excited for the future given the backing that the acquisition brings to the project.

“Facebook understands the potential for VR. Mark and his team share our vision for virtual reality’s potential to transform the way we learn, share, play, and communicate,” the Oculus VR team said. “Facebook is a company that believes that anything is possible with the right group of people, and we couldn’t agree more.”

“This partnership is one of the most important moments for virtual reality: it gives us the best shot at truly changing the world. It opens doors to new opportunities and partnerships, reduces risk on the manufacturing and work capital side, allows us to publish more made-for-VR content, and lets us focus on what we do best: solving hard engineering challenges and delivering the future of VR.”

Oculus concluded, “This partnership ensures that the Oculus platform is coming, and that it’s going to change gaming forever.”